Back Up to The Cooking Class

Jenny catching a photo of chorizo almost done

Mendoza family plus

Our beautiful table ready ot receive the morning's products and eager eaters

Salad containing napales and jicama plus

Oh, that gorgeous chorizo almost done 

One of Reyna's brothers looking on

A good look at Reyna's lovely kitchen

Thayudas in the making

Reyna does a perfect drop

Reyna does a perfect pick-up

Mike makes it perfect

Checking the fire

Jennie at the prensa

At work over the Calda

I really want one of these for Tlayudas

Reyna at her prep table

Reyna checking out the market's possibilities

Reyna working at the Matate

Michael checking out the  indoor market

I have just finished one week out of four at Instituto Cultural Oaxaca. Last year I graduated from A2 and understood that I would be going to B1 but after taking the oral placement exam the woman who tested me insisted that I should be in B2. I'm here to tell you that it's a bit of a stretch for sure. But I know after five days that my understanding of rapid speech is way past what it was before. So another woman and I who had both told the instructor that we thought we should be a notch lower, are both happy and pleased even though it's difficult.  We feel we're understanding about  90% of what we hear and that before this week, that would not have been the case. So we'll just see how it goes. If I feel too much in the dark (especially about the subjunctive) I'll ask for a change. It's great to be making some advancement in comprehension anyway.

I'd like to back up just a bit and describe the cooking class that four of us took the week before last in Teotitlan from Reyna Mendoza Ruiz. She is Tito Mendoza's sister. Tito is one of the finest weavers in Oaxaca. We did the class in the same compound where Jennie Henderson studied with Tito last year when we were all in Teotitlan. 

The class took place in the lovely outdoor kitchen where many family events take place and where Reyna entertains and teaches many people each year. 

I think I already told you about going to the morning market with Reyna to buy the last minute, fresh ingredients. What a pleasure to follow her from stall to stall. That market is a bustling and very happy place.

We began by making masa from corn herena and water, kneading it superbly with an old fashioned matate (sp) which is a rough stone similar to that used for a mortar and pestle. The masa is mixed and kneaded by pushing a rolling pin shaped stone of the same type away from the worker and then returned to the forward position and pushed forward again. We have also seen these used for grinding plant materials and cochineal by the natural dyers.  The masa is eventually formed into a large ball using about 1 kilo of herena. We made at least four different items using the same material. First we made small balls and pressed them in a tortilla press for making Memelitas using bean paste, rendered pork and queso fresco as well as minced chorizo. I'm coming back with recipes in case anyone is interested.

Next we made squash flower quesadillas using the same masa. Besides the masa, for these we used Oaxacan cheese, pumpkin flowers and epazote leaves. They were really tasty.

A wonderful cactus salad was made using Napales (Prickly Pear), avacado leaves, epazote leaves, cubed tomatoes, diced white onion and one cup of cubed jicama. These individual salads were served in a short corn husk....... Beautiful and delicious.

Then we made Salsa de Miltomate and Chile Pasilla de Oaxaca. We used miltomates or tomatillos, chiles pasillas de Oaxaca, cloves of garlic finely chopped and salt to taste. 

After using a tortilla sized metal press for the above dishes, we were presented with a much large  masa press for making the thin, delicate Tlayuda sized tortillas which are used to make a kind of Mexican pizza. Some of us have eaten these at the San Pablo restaurant near the Textile Museum.  They are wonderful and more delicate than a pizza but much like a pizza in diameter. I'd like to own one of these large metal presses becuause, of course, you can also make smaller sized tortillas with this press.

The last item to be made was a raspberry ice cream.  For it, Reyna used  two pounds of raspberries, one cup of thick cream, one and a half cups of cajeta (goat's mil caramel!) and one half cup toasted pecans chopped. She added the pecans at the last and the whole thing only took approximately ten minutes to make in her ice cream maker which had been in the freezer ahead of time. You never tasted anything so delicious. 

As I said earlier, Norma Hawthorn joined us for lunch and you can well imagine what a happy group we were sitting around the beautifully appointed table. Thank you for everything, Reyna. And thank you Norma for setting up this class. I will never forget the taste of that amazing ice cream. Yum!